Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/387

 Peter Skene Ogden Journals 357 Mr. Ogden's fifth and last year (1828-9) at the head of the Snake Expedition takes him into regions unknown to him or to other traders, either American or English, before this time. It is then he discovers the Humboldt river and explores the country to the northwest of Great Salt Lake. By any one not personally conversant with the local topography it is mere speculation to attempt to identify in detail the journey, but his general course is easy to follow; and his record of the hardships calmly endured and the dangers encountered is un- usually interesting. Leaving Fort Walla Walla late in September, 1828, and lollowing the same route as the year previous as far as the mouth of the Malheur river, the party ascends that river and then turns eastward to the waters of the Owyhee, and by the first week of November is upon the streams draining into the Humboldt, or Unknown river as he termed it. There the beaver are plentiful and the trapping much to his liking, but cold weather and scarcity of food compel him to turn east- ward toward the buffalo country and by the last week of De- cember he is within sight of Great Salt Lake, but quite to the north of it. Continuing along from there to the familiar valley of the Portneuf about the middle of January he crosses southward to the Bear River valley and for the next two months is in the mountain valleys to the Northeast of Great Salt Lake, just where we do not yet know, except from the names left there in his honor. In April, detaching a party tor separate duty and with instructions to return home on their own account, Mr. Ogden with fourteen men only returns to Unknown river and after a narrow escape from death by the Modoc Indians in June and July returns to the Columbia by way of Malheur lake and the John Day river of Eastern Oregon. We miss the name of the veteran Thos. McKay as one of his party this year. With this Journal before us it is possible to speculate less as to the date when Mr. Ogden first visited Great Salt Lake and the locality bearing his name there. It will be remem-